Jobs Effort to Begin Aiding Valley Parents

A privately funded new program that will help match people with jobs will start Thursday.

The Work Force Development Initiative will operate out of five Pacoima schools and have five bilingual career coaches, said Mario Matute, the initiative’s manager at the Valley Economic Development Center, which is funded by grants from a nonprofit group that provides assistance to small businesses.

The coaches will help parents find work and overcome obstacles--such as lack of transportation and child care, job training and English--that keep them from building stable work histories, Matute said.

“Once a person has a job, we are going to help him stay at that job,” Matute said.

Despite increased industrial activity in Pacoima, unemployment remains high, at about 40%, Matute said. The initiative, however, has identified 800 available jobs in Pacoima and elsewhere in the San Fernando Valley.

“Why are there so many people unemployed? That’s why we are connecting with companies, to find out why they aren’t hiring people here,” Matute said. “Success will greatly depend on the participation of Valley employers.”

With a $350,000 private grant from Los Angeles Urban Funders--a consortium of private foundations--the initiative will operate at least a year. The career coaches will reach out to parents at schools and later at churches, Matute said.

The majority of those helped by the program will be women. The coaches will also be women, and four of them have already been hired and trained, Matute added.

“This has never been done before,” said John J. Rooney, president of the development center. “It’s a top to bottom approach, working with business and employees and bringing them together.”

An important component of the initiative will be to find jobs for non-English speakers who are eager to work, and to enroll them in English classes, Matute said.

For Matute, this will be an important opportunity to help more people in Pacoima since leaving an administrative job at the San Fernando Gardens public housing development three months ago. During eight years there, Matute became a popular figure who introduced several job-training opportunities.

“He has a very good reputation in the community. We wanted somebody everybody would trust,” Rooney said.

Career coaches will work out of parent centers at Telfair Avenue Elementary School, Maclay Primary Center, Maclay Middle School, Pacoima Elementary School and Montague Charter Academy.

Those interested in more information may call the development center at (818) 834-9860.